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Auto mount folders with CIFS at startup

- 3 min read

Introduction

Section titled “ Introduction”

Setup shared folders with CIFS and mount automatically at startup. This worked for me within Ubuntu. For example, the shared folder can be on a NAS or a file server.

Setup with fstab

Section titled “ Setup with fstab”
  1. Install CIFS Utils
    Section titled “Install CIFS Utils”

    Run the following command:

    # Open your terminal application
    sudo apt-get update
    sudo apt-get install cifs-utils
  2. Create the folder to which you want to point the mount
    Section titled “Create the folder to which you want to point the mount”

    This can be a shared folder from your NAS of fileserver. Run the following commands:

    # Open your terminal application
    cd /mnt
    sudo mkdir -p fileserver/archive
    cd /home # Go to home where in step 4 .smbcred will be saved
    # IMPORTANT: Please read the instructions below
    Instructions:
    • Required Replace fileserver/archive with your own folder
  3. Add to /etc/fstab
    Section titled “Add to /etc/fstab”
    /etc/fstab
    # To edit use your text editor application, for example Nano
    //fileserver/archive /mnt/fileserver/archive/ cifs vers=3.0,credentials=/home/.smbcred,file_mode=0777,dir_mode=0777,iocharset=utf8,nofail 0 0
    # IMPORTANT: Please read the instructions below
    Instructions:
    • Required Replace //fileserver/archive with your shared folder, for example the folder on your NAS or fileserver
    • Required Replace /mnt/fileserver/archive/ with the local folder you created earlier to point the mount to
  4. Save the credentials to a separate .smbcred file
    Section titled “Save the credentials to a separate .smbcred file”
    /home/.smbcred
    # To create this script use your text editor application, for example Nano
    username=<username>
    password=<password>
    # IMPORTANT: Please read the instructions below
    Instructions:
    • Required Replace <username> with your username of the shared folder (on the file server or NAS)
    • Required Replace <password> with your password of the shared folder (on the file server or NAS)
  5. Test if it works
    Section titled “Test if it works”

    Run the following command:

    # Open your terminal application
    sudo mount -a

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